The Woodland Trust – Everything Is Better With Dragons

If you’re in the UK the Woodland Trust, based in Grantham, Linconshire, but with woodlands all around the the country, are offering free tree seed packs to people.

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/seeds/

They hope to increase the tree cover in the UK from the current 13% by planting 64,000,000 trees by 2025. I encourage my readers in the UK to join in if you have the space or could plant tree somewhere unofficial. I have ordered my pack of seeds – they contain rowan, dog rose, alder buckthorn and holly seeds in compost ready to germinate. These trees provide food and shelter to many birds and small animals, and make a reasonable hedge. I plan to document the progress of growth and hopefully planting.

I’m reading a book at the minute called The Long, Long Life of Trees, by Fiona Stafford, which I will be reviewing next week. It prompted me to think about trees, surprisingly enough.

There’s a wood that used to be a cow field. Sixteen years ago The Woodland Trust planted about a third of it up with mixed deciduous trees. There were the usual casualties but the trees that survived have thrived and the old horse chestnuts that for the core of the wood have continued to flower and fruit. They’re laden heavy with conkers already. The mature willows that dot the edge of the field, a reminder that we’re on drained marshland, are going strong and the cherry stand continues to produce fruit. A couple of years ago a further half of the field was planted up. The young trees are spindly but growing. There are pines among this new bunch of trees. It will be interesting to see how the next decade treats this young woodland.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my pictures, there will be more in the book review, because if I’m writing about a book about trees there are going to be pictures of trees.